Mark Hughes believes his players were denied a stonewall penalty that could have cost them two points at Huddersfield.

The game stood at 1-1 when Mame Diouf appeared to be clearly fouled when about to shoot on goal – a decision which came shortly after Joe Allen had survived a penalty shout at the other end.

“We feel a little bit aggrieved,” Hughes stated, “because it was a clear penalty when Mame Diouf in the middle of the goal has his legs taken away.

“Whether he (referee Anthony Taylor) is influenced because the home crowd think there was a foul by Joe Allen, but Joe is just shepherding the ball away from danger. Whether that’s influenced the referee, you’d have to ask him. It’s another key decision that’s gone against us.”

Stoke City trailed to a Tom Ince goal early on before the impressive Allen centred low for Ramadan to touch home an equaliser on the hour during a hugely entertaining game.

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“It was a fantastic run by Joe, who was immense once again, and he drove the game all afternoon and broke really well and produced the ball we needed and Ramadan came in and scored his second goal in any number of days.”

Stoke’s draw makes it four points in three days when the pressure was building up on Hughes, who continued: “Everybody is putting time lines on me and asking questions of the group of players. We are stretched defensively and that will impact on us.

Stoke City's Ramadan Sobhi (centre) celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game with team-mates during the Premier League match at the John Smith's Stadium.

“In recent weeks, we haven’t done too badly. We had a bad 45 minutes against Tottenham and you’ve seen (v Southampton) what they can do to teams. Performance-wise, we have always been in games.

“I’ve watched my team again today and they are giving everything. They are giving me everything and that’s all I can ask.

“We have picked ourselves up and gone again and I’m really pleased with where we are.

“I thought it was a game that went to and fro. Obviously we conceded from probably their first attack, but I thought we showed great intent.

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“It’s about half-an-inch on the line, so that’s a disappointment. I felt we deserved to be at least on level terms at half-time. Second half we had to commit men forward and obviously we were affected once again with injuries in defensive areas and lost our captain early in the game.”

“We had an unbelievable scramble in the box (at 1-0 down first half) where I think we had six/seven attempts but still didn’t get it over the line.